21 Nov: Clever. Ukrainians LURE & AMBUSH Russian Attackers | War in Ukraine Explained
I am a Ukrainian. My country has been invaded by Russia. In this video I will tell you what happened on the two hundred and seventy first day of the war.
Day 271: November 21
As you might still remember, in October, the Ukrainians conducted a devastating counteroffensive in this region and forced the Russians to start from scratch. It took the Russians around one week to regroup, and during the first week of November, they had already launched their first attacks and attempted to develop their success to the south of Bakhmut.
The reason why the Russians picked the southern direction as their first target is simple. If we zoom into the southern region, we can see that Opytne and Ivanhrad are not separate from Bakhmut. Despite being considered standalone villages from the administrative point of view, they are connected to Bakhmut and are basically its southern outskirts. They are also stretching too far out from the city, which makes them more vulnerable and exposed to potential assaults.
In order to prevent a flank attack, the Russians also engaged some troops to conduct attacks on Klischivka, Andriivka, and Kurdiumivka. And otherwise, the risk of a flank attack would be enormous because the Ukrainians reinforced this region even more, and now it is under the protection of 4 brigades. And even though some of these forces are allocated to protect other areas down the line, this is still a lot and shows that the Ukrainians definitely do not plan to give away any ground.
By the second week of November, the Bakhmut area became the area with the most intense fights in the entire Ukraine. On 8 November, the Spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group stated that the Bakhmut-Avdiivka-Vuhledar line is the hottest area of the front. And on 11 November, it became even hotter because the Ukrainians launched a series of counterattacks. Russian sources reported that the Ukrainians concentrated their artillery fire on Ivanhrad while simultaneously engaging their tank brigade and attacking from Klischivka and Andriivka toward Zaitseve. This is exactly what the Russians feared the most – a flank attack. As a result of these coordinated actions, the Russians suffered severe losses and were forced to retreat, zeroing out the limited gains that they managed to achieve.
After that, the Russians decided to switch their focus to the eastern part of Bakhmut, and they once again tried to return control over the champagne factory, which was partially successful. The intensity of fights somewhat decreased for several days, but after the loss of Kherson, the Russians were in urgent need of victories, which is why they immediately intensified their hostilities. A National Guard representative stated that the Russians were launching attacks with “maniacal persistence.” The losses spiked tremendously. Some of you mentioned that Russian general losses per day reported by Ukraine did not change. Yes, but they did not change, given that the Kherson front became almost inactive. So, for these numbers to stay constant, there must have been a spike in losses in other directions.
In order to gain ground as fast as possible and declare that some settlements have been conquered, the Russians started dropping phosphorus to burn the Ukrainians on the ground. Eventually, this brought results, and geolocated footage showed that the Russians established their positions in Opytne, Ivanhrad, fixed Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, launched an attack toward the central part of Bakhmut, and also took other factories on the eastern outskirts.
After they exhausted their combat capabilities, the Ukrainians once again launched their counterattacks. The first series of assaults was launched to the south of the city. Here, the Ukrainians once again conducted a broad flank attack and pushed toward Opytne, Zaitseve, and Odradivka.
The second series of assaults was launched from inside Bakhmut itself and attempted to push the Russians from the eastern outskirts and from the central part of the city, where the Russians tried to operate under the cover of their forces located in Ivanhrad.
Even though Russian sources reported these counterattacks as unsuccessful, they still put all of their combat zones back into the grey zone. As you can see, the Russians keep getting into the same trap. They get into the suburbs, and the moment they try to reach the city, they get decimated by a flank attack, which is followed by an attack from inside the city. This is exactly what happened in October, and this is exactly what happened in November, twice.
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